Here are just some of the animal abuse and neglect cases that have gotten public attention in the Poconos in recent years:

December 2013: Animal Welfare Society of Monroe's animal shelter reported on its Facebook page that it had received reports of three dead dogs found in black garbage bags throughout the Poconos.

December 2013: An emaciated dog was found lying on a plastic trash bag in the woods off Godfrey Ridge Drive in Stroud Township, less than a tenth of a mile from the AWSOM shelter.

The trash bag contained the remains of another dog.

October 2013: A neglected and tortured female puggle, or pug-beagle mix, was found tied to a tree, shivering, badly bruised and covered in fleas, near a Giant Supermarket in Wind Gap.

July/August 2013: A pit bull terrier, limping and underweight with lacerations to her face, was discovered to have 29 bone fractures throughout her body. The dog, kept in the backyard of an East Stroudsburg home, had to struggle to stand on all fours, and her right hind leg appeared broken.

There were scars and lacerations on her face and under her chin, plus a large lump under her jaw. Her owner faced charges of abuse.

February 2012: In Smithfield Township, a family's 6-month-old Maine Coon suffered some form of blunt force trauma, possibly kicked, hard enough to break his back legs and pelvis. The family and the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals offered a $1,000 reward for information about the suspected cat abuse.

April 2011: An emaciated pit bull puppy with signs of frostbite and open lacerations on its paws was found curled in a ball on the steps of a Pocono Farms East, Coolbaugh Township, home.

The dog was treated for a serious bacterial infection, along with cuts on his four pads. That same day, in A Pocono Country Place, also in Coolbaugh, a young female pit bull was found malnourished, injured and bleeding from the ears and nose.

February 2011: Ten German shepherds, three of which were dead, were found starved and neglected in horrific conditions on a Paradise Township property. Neighbors said it appeared the dogs, which were covered in their own feces, had been in the cages for so long that they had been trying to dig their way out.

August 2009: Following an anonymous tip that a dozen head of cattle were starving on a property near Mountainhome in Barrett Township, Pocono Animal Rescue seized the animals.

Initially, only three or four of the animals were rounded up. Later, five or six of the animals were found inside a house on the property.

September 2008: A woman's pet cat in the area of Dotter's Corner Road in Polk Township was severely injured after someone shot it with an arrow.

August 2008: Nineteen "lap-sized" puppies and young dogs were rescued by the Pike County Humane Society in response to a call reporting unattended dogs, essentially abandoned in a Delaware Township home.

December 2008: Five horses, suffering from severe malnutrition, were recovered from a Mount Pocono-area property. One horse, a mustang, was 100 pounds underweight and riddled with worms. A sixth horse, which had fallen on icy ground and could not get up, was euthanized.

Pocono Record News Librarian

Janis Dahlman

» Social News

Shivering, starving and unloved, abused and neglected animals too commonly make news in the Poconos.

Etched in the minds of many is the photo of Lexi, the Pike County dog whose owner bound her legs and muzzle tightly with duct tape and left her in a chicken coop.

Another dog named Lexi was discovered in Monroe County with more than 20 broken bones from abuse.

Just as heartbreaking: There are animals that will never make the news but are spending winter outside, cowering from the cold, dying for affection and a water bowl that has not frozen over.

"It's not unique to the Poconos. It happens all over the state," Rep. Mike Carroll, D-118, said of animal abuse.

His office receives many calls from citizens concerned about animal abuse.

That is why Carroll has co-sponsored a bill that calls for an animal abuser registry in Pennsylvania.

Similar registries have been proposed in 26 states, but none has succeeded in becoming a state law, said Chris Green, legislative affairs director at the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

However, a few counties in New York have made it law for animal abusers to be put on a list, Green said.

In Pennsylvania, the legislation, House Bill 265, would require convicted animal abusers to register with the county sheriff once a year for 15 years.

The sheriff would then inform every residence, school, humane society, animal shelter and any business within a half-mile radius of the animal abuser's residence.

The state police would also get the abuser's name and put it on an online, publicly searchable database of animal abusers, similar to the current Megan's Law sex offender registry.

If the state law is passed, anyone registered on the list would be barred from owning an animal.

The bill was moved to the Judiciary Committee in January 2013, where it remains. The legislature has until November 2014 to act on it, or it will have to be reintroduced in a future session.

"It will take a commitment by the majority to run the bill out of the committee, hopefully in 2014," Carroll said.

He is optimistic because the bill has received bipartisan support so far.

Most animal shelters keep a "do-not-adopt" list of people that the shelter will not allow to take animals, Green said.

That is, people who keep so many animals in their home that they are unable to care for them properly. Often hoarders feel compelled to continue acquiring animals even after they have been court-ordered to stop.

The Pike County Humane Society in Shohola has a do-not-adopt list.

"Not only that, we share the information with any other shelters in the area," said shelter Director Barry Heim. "We've been doing that for at least 15 years."

The do-not-adopt list in shelters is often subjective.

In Pike, they are watching for people who show signs of abuse in their relationships. For example, if a husband is really bossy with his wife and kids, Heim said.

Instead of waiting for each state to build an animal abuse registry, the Animal Legal Defense Fund is building its own nationwide database of abusers.

"We wanted to put together something accessible nationwide and populate it with official convictions," Green said.

State registries don't cross state lines, but a nationwide database is more comprehensive.

"It will provide a tool that pet stores, shelters and individuals can use to assure that an animal is going to a home that is worthy," Green said. "Shelters want this. The whole point is to prevent convicted animal abusers from obtaining more animals to abuse."

The national registry will be searchable by full name and date of birth.

Most shelters already have access to that information because they require a driver's license or identification to adopt a pet.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund has already acquired decades of animal abuse convictions for many states and expects to have the registry operating in early 2014.

The national registry would be used as a tool for pet stores, shelters and individuals to look up the name of anyone wishing to adopt a pet.

The California-based Animal Legal Defense Fund was founded by attorneys in 1979 who work to protect animals through the legal system by advocating for stronger enforcement of anti-cruelty laws nationwide.